Excerpt:
...Charles Benefiel's finished compositions range up
to 40 by 60 inches and are rendered through a process
of stippling, what he describes as 'dots', with rapidograph
technical pens (typically .25 and .35 line weights)
on Arches paper. The drawings fall into two general
categories: number drawings and pictorial drawings.
There are no preliminary drawings and no lines to guide
the composition. As Benefiel states: 'There was no need
to stay in the lines, because there are no lines.' The
only 'studies' for a final drawing are multiple efforts
at perfecting details such as folds of cloth, crumpled
metal, the contours of a heart or facial expressions.
In his representational drawings Benefiel works from
the center outward, at first placing dots in a loose
pattern and then filling in the final composition. In
his drawings of rows of numbers (for example, 'Hygienic
Toys 6') he stipples the characters from left to right
as they would appear on a typed or printed page. As
he draws he counts the dots, an act that apparently
takes place in sequences rather than as a continuous
inventory. The sequences (counting to a certain number,
then beginning anew) help him to focus his thoughts
and 'chain' his mind to the drawing process.